I bought the great planes flight sim for when glue or epoxy is drying in the work shop and 3 ft of snow out side . lol It keeps my fingers nimble so in spring when i need to maiden my new plane it dont end up in pieces. I could go fly in a warm gym with some of my club members but i have seen them fly in spring and for most of them its ugly. lmao joe

I live in a Climate similar to Joe's above, only much colder, more snow and longer cold season duration. I love my Realflight G-5.5 and if you think it's not a way to keep sharp on the sticks, think again. It's not just a toy, it's as close to flying R/C as you can get but not freeze your tookus off doing so in November, December, January, February, March and even into April sometimes.

However, my comments on Realflight weren't so much about it's usefulness, as about the new kind of modeling being done! Some of the models are absolutely fantastic!

I live in a Climate similar to Joe's above, only much colder, more snow and longer cold season duration. I love my Realflight G-5.5 and if you think it's not a way to keep sharp on the sticks, think again. It's not just a toy, it's as close to flying R/C as you can get but not freeze your tookus off doing so in November, December, January, February, March and even into April sometimes.

However, my comments on Realflight weren't so much about it's usefulness, as about the new kind of modeling being done! Some of the models are absolutely fantastic!

Very interesting take on the RealFlight, and the planes that are depicted, and created... and thanks for that link.. I just bought the v5.5 about 6 months ago so my wife, and friends can get some stick time.. and I'm a big fan of it, and it does just what need.. and in my experience, I totally agree...it is the closest thing to actually flying there is on the market.

It doesn't replace the feeling of being out in the outdoors, and all that goes with that... nor does it smell like your favorite glue and balsa... but it's definately a very worthy tool in keeping in decent practice, and honing new manuevers....

The perspective of creating models.. most designs are created digitally and have been for many years.. on many various programs...but I've not thought of the sim as a form of "media" for modeling/creating purpose.... as much as a replication form... hmm.. I've got to look into that.

I don't know about you guys, but I'll be flyin' outside all through the winter. 'Course, coldest I've flown is 0F, and Minneesota gets a bit colder than that, eh? It's a whole different experience. Best was one morning when the hoar frost was all over everything, winds dead calm, had to fly, come in and warm up and go fly again! It seems like the super cold air is more dense, and planes just float better.

I don't know about you guys, but I'll be flyin' outside all through the winter. 'Course, coldest I've flown is 0F, and Minneesota gets a bit colder than that, eh? It's a whole different experience. Best was one morning when the hoar frost was all over everything, winds dead calm, had to fly, come in and warm up and go fly again! It seems like the super cold air is more dense, and planes just float better.

When you get to be my ripe old age i worry about falling and breaking my hip more than freezing to death. lmao

Hmm, that's something to think about (he said having turned 65 on the ninth) nahhh, I'm gonna go out and play! My biggest problem this year has been, and continues to be wind. Seems like it's always 10 and up and too often pushing 20.

Ah, fair enough. See, I'm down here in sunny Australia and we don't have what you guys call 'winter' - we'll get frosts and so on in the mornings but winter temps in my area (100 miles south of Sydney) are -5'C nights and 10~15'C days.

If the weather was 'real' winter (-10'C or less, snow over the place etc) then I, too, might start to think a sim is invaluable!

Ah, fair enough. See, I'm down here in sunny Australia and we don't have what you guys call 'winter' - we'll get frosts and so on in the mornings but winter temps in my area (100 miles south of Sydney) are -5'C nights and 10~15'C days.

If the weather was 'real' winter (-10'C or less, snow over the place etc) then I, too, might start to think a sim is invaluable!

Cheers - boingk

When we get 3 or 4 ft of snow its either build or play with the sim or shovel snow out of the driveway . I would rather build and play the sim and let the snow melt by itself. lmao joe

I believe the decline of mom & pop hobby shops,have led to to the loss of many new builders. I learned quite a bit before our local hobby shops went under.
I spent what ever time I had, learning and working on my planes at the hobby shop.It seems like there was always someone working on a plane with the help of the owner or his right hand man.
If some of us older molders could help anyone new interested in building,it might get the ball rolling. As they say you can't go back,oh well
Earl
ps someone might of touched on this earlier in this thread

Earl, I agree building with others; or, some type of building clinic is a good idea and am also going to be doing just that in a couple weeks. Let's see if anyone shows up. After all there is a lack of interest in building!